Ireland

Irish Drivers Abroad and a Revived Kitchen

Ireland has never hosted a World Championship Grand Prix, but its drivers have raced since 1950, and its cooking rests on dairy, grain, pork and the Atlantic.

With no World Championship Grand Prix ever held in Ireland, the country's Formula 1 story belongs to its drivers. Two of them were there at the very start: Joe Kelly and Brian Shawe Taylor, both born in Dublin, each made two starts across 1950 and 1951.

Derek Daly is the most experienced Irish driver in our records, with 49 starts between 1978 and 1982 and a best finish of fourth. Ralph Firman started 14 Grands Prix in 2003, with eighth his best result, and Tommy Byrne started twice in 1982. Not everyone reached the grid: Dave Kennedy entered seven races in 1980 without starting one, which takes a particular kind of persistence.

Irish cooking grew from what a temperate island could farm and the Atlantic could offer. Dairy, oats, barley and wheat, beef, lamb and pork run through the traditional diet, alongside potatoes, cabbage and curly kale. Seaweeds such as dillisk have always been eaten, and chowder is popular around the coasts. In the late twentieth century a new Irish cooking took shape, bringing fresh ideas to traditional ingredients: vegetables, salmon and trout, oysters and mussels, soda bread and the many cheeses now made across the country.

The classics are comforting and easy to make at home. Irish stew and bacon and cabbage remain favorites, and coddle brings sausage, bacon and potato together in one pot. The potato alone becomes boxty pancakes, colcannon with kale or cabbage, and champ with scallions and butter, which is a great deal of range for one vegetable. Soda bread needs no yeast, and barmbrack, a currant cake with a ring hidden inside, comes out at Halloween.

A taste of Ireland

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